It began in September, 1955. Dwight D. Eisenhower was President of the United States of America. The United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in what history would later call the Cold War. The Soviets were trying to bring Communism to all parts of the world. One of the areas they targeted was the Kingdom of Yemen. Yemen was ruled by a despotic Imam, the Imam Ahmed. Control of Yemen would mean control of the entrance to the Red Sea from the Indian Ocean. In the past Britain had this control but in connection with their reducing their empire would soon abdicate this restraint. The significance of this control was the same as the Suez Canal at the north end of the Red Sea. The Soviets were desirous of stepping in to take over. The United States did not want this to happen. That is why the CIA became involved.
The Central Intelligence Agency had been unable to penetrate the Kingdom of Yemen, although there was a U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, a career State Department man, who was also Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and stationed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He had been unable to get an audience with the Imam.
That is why Ed Wulfe, a CIA man, approached Doug Moore, a petroleum engineer who headed up a very aggressive oil and gas company based in Dallas, Texas.
Doug Moore was 39 years old, a graduate of Texas A&M and MIT.He was a veteran of World War II and an experienced oil operator in international oil business, familiar with negotiating for foreign oil concessions.He was also a veteran of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the U.S. intelligence organization formed during WWII.
Ed said, “Doug, you have helped us in the past on special assignments and now we need your help again. We have been unable to penetrate the Kingdom of Yemen. We understand from State that you will soon be a part of an expedition going to Yemen to secure an oil and mineral concession. The Russians are trying to do the same thing and it is important to have a U.S. presence there. Wait until you receive a call at your office.We want you to establish a rapport with the King and thereby develop a method to keep Russians out.Go to you office as usual and wait for the call.”
Doug nodded, “I know the importance of this mission and I will do my best.”
Ed smiled, tilted his hat and left.
Doug sat down on the bench in the park watching Ed casually sauntering off and he wondered if he would be up to this mission. How would he establish a rapport with a King?
His thoughts went home to Louisiana as they often did when he wondered about his place in life.
He had been born on a plantation in Louisiana at home during a leap year.His father had been born in that same four poster bed.His mother had been a schoolteacher in earlier years.Now she stayed on the plantation with her husband and tutored and nursed the folks living there.
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Book Details
Language :
English
Publication Date :
12/29/2004
Format :
Softcover
Dimensions :
8.5x8.5
Page Count :
100
ISBN :
9781420802344
About the Book
When the slight and sickly child was born on a plantation in Louisiana, no one would have imagined the adventures he would set in motion and experience shaping outcomes forming the Cold War and the ongoing strife in the Middle East.But then he, like other unlikely boys had been born into what would later be called The Greatest Generation.
This is a story based on an actual happening.Some of the characters are fictional, as are some of the incidents.The story is based on a feature article in Life Magazine, dated December 5, 1955, concerning the obtaining of a petroleum concession in the despotic Kingdom of Yemen by an American group.The group accomplished this in a race with the Soviets.
About the Author
Jack Crichton is a world renowned engineer-geologist and a graduate of Texas A&M and MIT.He is the author of numerous publications regarding the oil and gas industry, including being a co-author of The Dynamic Oil and Gas Industry, published by the University of Oklahoma Press.During World War II, he was a major in the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA, eventually retiring as a colonel in the Army Intelligence Reserve.
E.J. Anderson is a product of the University of Houston, a creative writer, an artist and entrepreneur business woman who founded a health products company, Papillon Handmade Glycerin Soaps.
